


Are You Okay?

by reddysteddy



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Gen, He's just someone that they care about, I tried so hard to make a purple heart edgy, Mumbo's a good friend, No Homo(TM), No one knows what Jrumbot's relation is to the rest of the family, Takes place during the mayor campaign
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25586422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reddysteddy/pseuds/reddysteddy
Summary: Grian and Mumbo decide to celebrate their first Father's day as dads.
Relationships: Oliver Brotherhood & Charles | Grian, Oliver Brotherhood & Charles | Grian & Viktor | Iskall85
Comments: 5
Kudos: 68





	Are You Okay?

Grian swooped through the top of the ever expanding barge, the wings of his elytra snapping together against his back as he skidded to a halt on the spruce wood. As he landed he took note of how empty the shopping district was. Usually he could either see or hear at least one other person buying goods from someone else or restocking their own shops, but today the mooshroom island looked deserted. In fact, he had not seen anybody all day. It was as if he was the only person online.

Just as the thought passed through his mind he heard the sound of shoes against wood. He looked up to see Mumbo scooping redstone blocks out of a barrel, diamonds in his hand. "Finally!", Grian voiced aloud. The denim clad man flinched, apparently not expecting to find company in the shop. "I've been looking for someone else to talk to all day. Do you have any idea how dull it is around here without anyone?".

Mumbo smoothed the front of his shirt and turned to face his mayoral manager. "Heh, I bet", he chuckled. "To be honest I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here, considering what day it is and everything". Grian walked towards him and held his palm out, letting Mumbo pay for his goods up front instead of dumping the diamonds in the barrel. "'What day it is'? What are you talking about?", he asked, pocketing the gems. "Do you mean the nether reset? That's not for a couple more days".

Mumbo tossed the redstone in his trouser pockets. "Father's Day", he said bluntly. Grian made a noise of acknowledgement and nodded in understanding. It was not often spoken between them, but Grian and Mumbo were some of the only hermits who had neither any children or a strong relationship with their own parents. Neither had celebrated Father's Day since moving out of their parents' houses.

Mumbo fished a rocket from under his belt. "Anyway, I guess today is a good time to meet up about mayoral things. You want to fly over to Grumbot?". Grian's eyes widened in realization. "Wait a second, hold the phone. We're both dads now!", he said excitedly. The high trousered man shot him a confused look. "I- What?".

Grian pointed at a 'MUMBO FOR MAYOR' poster hanging nearby. "Last time we had a meeting Grumbot called us his dads, remember?". Mumbo scratched the side of his head. "Well, Grumbot is just an AI, so...". Grian waved his hand dismissively. "He still called us his dads, and that's all that matters. We can actually celebrate Father's Day this year!".

Mumbo shrugged, deciding to humor his friend. "Alright, I guess we're dads. What should we do now?". The shorter man pondered his question for a moment. What should they do? He had only been a father for a few days, and before that he was not sure that he had ever wanted to be one.

"Hey, did you ever program Grumbot to know about Father's day? Or holidays in general?". Mumbo scratched his head again. "Now that I think about it... No?". Grian grabbed a stack of rockets from the emergency barrel near the front of his shop. "Well I guess today is a good day to teach him. Let't fly over and tell him we love him and what this holiday means. Come on!". And with that they flew out of the barge.

\---

As the chunks of the enormous robot came into view something was immediately off. The bulb on top of Grumbot's antenna was swollen and faded to an angry magenta. Upon closer inspection a large purple heart had been burned into his screen.

Grian ignored the endrods that they usually landed on as he approached the concrete, eyes glued to his son's face. He barely registered Mumbo landing beside him. Grumbot might not have been able to feel physical sensations, but the markings on him still looked like they hurt.

The diamond in his hand suddenly felt cold and heavy. He slowly approached the anvil near the base of his creation as if in a trance. He slid the expensive rock and the tag onto the smooth metal surface, but no questions came to mind. What could he say?

What felt like minutes later Grian named the diamond with the only thing that felt right: "Are you okay?".

He fed the blue stone into his son and dragged his hands along the four buttons, stepping back to study Grumbot's response. His large mustache stirred to life as usual, but his eyes maintained an empty gaze. A slip of paper appeared on the floor in front of him. Grian picked up the paper and stared at it in his hands, eyes wide with horror: "Get Gorgeous".

"What did he say?", Mumbo muttered behind him. Grian peered at him from over his shoulder, his movements slow and shaky. "Get gorgeous", he said somberly. "Stress' mayoral slogan".  
Mumbo put a hand to his chin, brow furrowed with thought. "I wonder if...?". He ignited a rocket and flew around to the back of the robot, disappearing from sight. Grian shifted his eyes back to the shapes etched into Grumbot's face. The heart curled down to his bushy facial hair, the two arches nested between his eyes. Grian traced the blue-ish red edges with his pupils over and over, burning the shape into his mind. A storm of questions swirled in his head, too many for every diamond in his shulker box.

The sun sank low on to the horizon. Grumbot's eyes shined brightly against the dark sky, but there was no life behind them anymore. It was shocking how a bit of magenta could make a robot look like a corpse.

Mumbo finally flew around to the front of his child, face contorted into a deep scowl. "Well, I did a bit of digging, and I found out who made this mess. The redstone work done to Grumbot is too complex for Stress to manage, and I haven't seen Ren come out of the mesa in days, so the only person it could have been is Iskall". He approached his friend, who was still standing on the concrete in a trance. "I also discovered something else about Grumbot. Come back here and look".

Grian followed him to the other side of the robot. A large hole had been smashed into his back, revealing all of the machinery inside. Grian still did not know a ton about redstone, but he did recognize a few components among the jumble of parts. Nearly every piece of Grumbot's inner workings were hooked up to a tripwire or an observer. At the center of it all, hovering like a spiteful fairy, was an enormous end crystal, its magenta light casting a mocking glow.

"Everything is hooked up to the crystal in the middle. If you mess with anything then the observers and tripwires will sense the update and the entire thing will explode", Mumbo spat, trying to keep his voice calm. "A blast that large would take out over half the blocks in our kid, making it impossible to rebuild him without basically starting from scratch again".  
Grian turned to face him. "What does that mean?". Mumbo lowered his head. "It means that... Well". He looked Grian in the eye, his face carrying a somber expression. "It means that we're not dads anymore".

\---

Grian stayed quiet for a long time. He did not respond to Mumbo's words aside from turning away from him. Instead he trained his eyes on the explosive crystal in front of him. The longer he stared the more vividly he could imagine Iskall laughing proudly about the damage he had done to their child. He must be so ready to brag about destroying their family, willing to jump on every opportunity to rub it in their face once he saw them again. Grian twirled a rocket in his hand, his grip growing tighter and tighter. The longer he stared at the crystal the angrier he became. The loss of his son had rendered him unable to realize how irrational his feelings towards his friend were becoming. He had convinced himself that Iskall had not only damaged his property, but had killed his son intentionally just to win a stupid election.

He clenched his fist around the rocket until it crumbled, gunpowder and shreds of paper falling to the ground.

Mumbo tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?", he asked, worry seeping into his voice.

That seemed to break the spell a little. Grian dropped the remains of the broken rocket and dusted his hands off. "Yeah. I'm fine, I guess. I just...". I just can't believe Iskall would do this, especially to a friend, he thought to himself. "I'm fine".

He heard Mumbo stand up behind him. "Well, its getting late and I have redstone to do tomorrow. I'm gonna head back to my base now". Before he could leave Grian stood and put a hand on his arm. "No, don't go just yet. There's another robot we need to visit before tomorrow". Grian's grip on Mumbo's arm was uncomfortably tight, his eyes were hard and steely. "If Iskall did this to Grumbot then something similar might have happened to Jrumbot".

Mumbo shot him an apologetic, but puzzled look. "Jrumbot", Grian repeated irritably. "Our nephew. Grandson. Thing. Come on". He pulled out another rocket and flew away from the concrete, dragging his friend along with him.

\---

Jrumbot loomed ominously over the two men. The first thing they noticed was the robot's eyes, the upper halves curled downwards, causing him to appear melancholy. Behind the entryway was nothing but darkness as if someone had stolen all of his sea lanterns inside. The chests and every scrap of merchandising were gone. The only thing filling the younger robot was a wooden sign stuck to the back wall. Both Grian and Mumbo had to squint to read the lettering in the dim lighting.

"It looks like I'm the big brother now...".

Both men became silent upon seeing that. "Wow...", Mumbo muttered. "That's... That's really sad".

Grian's hands curled into fists. "Iskall knew. He knew what he was doing". He had given up on trying to keep himself quiet. "He killed Grumbot and then immediately told his little brother about it, just so he could rub it in his face. He murdered our son and now he wants to do the same to our nephew too". He knew he was yelling, but he did not care. "He is a child killer and he is not sorry about any of it and the only way he'll stop is if I kill him first-".

Mumbo wrapped his hands around Grian's wrists and squeezed him tightly. "No no no, don't say that". Grian continued to sputter angrily, but his noises no longer sounded like words. Mumbo gripped his arms harder, causing him to tremble beneath his touch. Grian sobbed as he shook, defeatedly burying his face in Mumbo's chest.

They stayed like that for a long time, huddled together in the little shop, no sound aside from Mumbo's breathing and Grian's muffled crying. Finally Grian lifted his head from Mumbo's chest, his face red and swollen. looking over Mumbo's shoulder he noticed another sign had appeared next to the one from before. It read a simple question.  
"Are you okay?".

Grian pointed it out to Mumbo and gave a deep sniff. "I don't know", he began, voice hoarse from grief. "I-I already lost someone today, and I don't want someone else to get hurt. I don't want anyone to get hurt".

Mumbo stroked his hand against his cheek. "You sounded like you wanted to hurt Iskall a few minutes ago". Grian sobbed, fresh tears stinging his eyes. "I know, and I'm so so sorry. I know Iskall would never try to do something like this. But I- But I can't handle losing someone else". Mumbo brought his fingers against the smaller man's eyes, wiping the tears off of his face.

"But you're not going to lose anyone", Mumbo whispered soothingly. "We're all still here, Grian. We're not going anywhere". He wrapped his other arm against the smaller man's back, holding him closer.

"How do you know that?", Grian choked out. "Because We're not going to let it happen", Mumbo said with confidence. "I am going to tell Iskall that Jrumbot is off limits and tell him how much this robot means to you. And Iskall is going to listen, because that is what friends do". Grian slowly lifted his head.

"When you talk to Iskall, can you tell him I'm sorry about what I said earlier?". Mumbo patted his cheek. "I wasn't really gonna tell him that part, but I think you should apologize to him yourself". Grian nodded with sad agreement. He noted another sign had appeared behind Mumbo again.

"I love you uncles".

Grian cried again, this time from joy. "I love you too, Jrumbot".


End file.
